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How to Hack an iPod

Posted by pudge on from the tiiiiiime-is-coming-to-an-end dept.

usermilk writes "The upcoming issue of Time magazine has an article on 'How to Hack an iPod.' It teaches you how to convert your iPod into a semi-PDA. As the article says, 'Owners of Apple's MP3 player opened it up and added all sorts of bells and whistles. You can too.'"

22 comments

  1. Tivo Is The Way! by GTRacer · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Step 1: Read relevant Tivo-hacking texts for inspiration

    Step 2: ???

    Step 3: Lawsuit for IP Violation

    GTRacer
    - Hi There!

    --
    Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
    1. Re:Tivo Is The Way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ummm, I thought the (H)GSB didn't start until the 21st. What gives? Oh well, FP on a cool article is nice!

      P.S. I bet you thought I was going to say "Profit!"

    2. Re:Tivo Is The Way! by norwoodites · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Apple only cares if you are going to take money away from them not for them.

  2. Interesting... by Picass0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Time Magazine is owned by AOLTime-Warner, a media giant with interests slanted to the benefit of the RIAA and MPAA. Now Time is going to tell all of us unwashed end-users how to use our I-pods in a way that might be at odds with the DMCA. Hmm....

    I hope Fritz Hollings and Disney don't find out about this.

    Actually, this is one time I'd be amused to see Apple sue, just to watch AOLTime-Warner get a taste of the bad laws they helped build.

    1. Re:Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Well, I must say for once there's a mainstream (I'll stay off the soapbox this time about that sarcasm)media article that shows hackin' in the good light it's always been intended to be of. Perhaps someday we can train the Mega-Corpo-Conglomo Pseudo Shakespearian Media-Monkey machine to type "Crackers" rather than "Hackers"? One can only hope. Although filtered for the unwashed masses it was a refreshing thing to read.


      BTW, I'm still eating crackers and water for lunch and driving slow (saves gas ya know although I hate it) and squirelling away my dollars so that I may one day too own an iPod and iBook with a side order of tasty Mac OSX. Damn those bastards at CompUSSR! They chased me away on the accusation of stalking a Mac ;-)

      Sincerely,
      A tired clone PC refugee. (Well, at least I have Linux and KDE, no winbloze here...)

  3. Hacks to drive purchases by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've noticed over time that the games that do the best are a) good games, and b) allow their users to hack the system.

    Quake III, for example. Great game? Maybe - IMHO, not as good as Unreal Tournament. But the ability for gamers to hack their way and replace everything from pictures to AI has helped make it big.

    Best example is Half-Life - I mean, Valve has how many products? One. But because of the mod scene, they're still making money. When a good mod comes along, they capitalize on it, and use it to promote their product.

    I think Apple is catching on. They noticed people making hacks to view address book information - so they added the ability. I'm hoping that just as Steve Jobs sees the Mac as the center of the digital world for media, that Apple sees the iPod as a bridge that users can latch onto. Hard drive, music player, storage device for other things (cameras, PDA's, etc) - the possibilities of this little device are are nearly limitless.

    --
    52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
    1. Re:Hacks to drive purchases by Niherlas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or, conversely, acknowledging popular hacks as features that customers want to see in their products.

      Apple actually has a long history of this - and in many cases they've actually compensated the orginal "hack" author. WindowShade, an Apple Menu with submenus, a single control panel for Internet-related prefs - these are just a few hacks that were either freeware or shareware that ended up becoming MacOS features.

      iTools Webmail may just be the latest - there were already sites like imapple.net offering web-based access to iTools accounts (via IMAP clients like IMP and SquirrelMail). Apple may have realized that (since they really couldn't cut IMAP access), it was in their better interest to make a clean local (fast) webmail implementation.

      --
      -- Niherlas
  4. iLinux by President+Chimp+Toe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, anyone working on an iPod linux port yet?

    Beowulf clusters anyone?

    1. Re:iLinux by rodbegbie · · Score: 2

      Yes.

      http://neuron.com/~jason/ipod.html

      rOD.

      --
      Rod Begbie done this, and he's not
    2. Re:iLinux by gklinger · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you read that site you'll find that they are not trying to port Linux to the iPod but rather, trying to find a way to access the iPod from Linux. Quite a different proposition.

    3. Re:iLinux by xinu · · Score: 1
      That's iPod on Linux, which is kinda neat, I suppose for it's nerd factor. But, he asked about Linux on an iPod.

      Then again, why the hell would you wanna do that? So you can get it to play ogg?

    4. Re:iLinux by PoshSpod · · Score: 1
      Beowulf clusters anyone?

      Problem is iPods only have enough processing power to decode MP3s and run a small b&w display. Not much use for number-crunching.

      Now if someone could put togeather a 10gb firewire-backed portable RAID device, that would be cool!

      --

      This is my sig.

    5. Re:iLinux by Chaset · · Score: 1
      Are you talking about something like this:

      RAID

      Not exactly iPods, but what would be cool is if you can hook this up to an iPod. Music for the rest of the decade.

      --
      -- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
  5. The magazine came out April 15th by Microsift · · Score: 1

    Granted the date on the cover is April 22, but this issue has been available for at least four days (maybe longer in NY).

    --
    My other sig is extremely clever...
    1. Re:The magazine came out April 15th by usermilk · · Score: 1

      I know, but I am always hesitant with magazine dates. They always date them ahead for some unkown (to me) reason, yet release them a week behind their cover date. So do I say the upcoming or the current or the past issue? I just went with the date on the cover.

  6. Time and Apple by qurob · · Score: 0, Flamebait


    In bed together?!?!

    1. Re:Time and Apple by Microsift · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hardly, there is minimal coverage in Time magazine about Apple products. When the G4 came out, it was two weeks before Time even mentioned it on the technology page (this was the first personal computer to break the gigaflop barrier). The iPod is getting coverage, because it is cool, just like the new iMac, not because Time and Apple are bedfellows.

      --
      My other sig is extremely clever...
  7. One Step Ahead by Sentry21 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And remember people, if you can't wait for the latest issue of Time Magazine to hit the shelves, you can always check out Time Canada for the latest leaked articles.

    --Dan

  8. Stupid iPod hacks by Wise+Dragon · · Score: 1

    To quote Wes Felter, "Am I the only one who thinks all the iPod kludges are stupid?"

    1. Re:Stupid iPod hacks by jlower · · Score: 2

      In don't think they are stupid but I haven't seen one yet that I want to use on my iPod.

  9. Find out more.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No registration needed...no fees...no cookies...no kidding. Well, maybe a little kidding.

    Check out the comparison chart...read recent iPod related links...see if you can guess the original iPod internal project name. Pour over the specs and features.

  10. iPodHacks by blakespot · · Score: 0
    Glad to see the iPodHacks.com plug appear in Time print magazine. I hope people are enjoying my site.

    Cheers.



    blakespot --- http:://www.ipodhacks.com

    --
    -- Heisenberg may have slept here.
    iPod Hacks.com